Emotional Intelligence and its Impact on Effective Human Resource Management

There is increasing acceptability of emotional intelligence as a major factor in personality assessment and effective human resource management. Emotional intelligence as the ability to build capacity, empathize, co-operate, motivate and develop others cannot be divorced from both effective performance and human resource management systems. The human person is crucial in defining organizational leadership and fortunes in terms of challenges and opportunities and walking across both multinational and bilateral relationships. The growing complexity of the business world requires a great deal of self-confidence, integrity, communication, conflict and diversity management to keep the global enterprise within the paths of productivity and sustainability. Using the exploratory research design and 255 participants the result of this original study indicates strong positive correlation between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management. The paper offers suggestions on further studies between emotional intelligence and human capital development and recommends for conflict management as an integral part of effective human resource management.


Introduction
Since the recognition of the concept of emotional expression emotional intelligence has gained interest in academic publications from the early 20 th century to date. Despite its young history, it has been defined by different authors in different ways. In 1990s for example, it was defined by Peter Salovey and John Mayer to involve the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use such information to guide one's thinking and action (Mayer and Salovey, 1997;Salovey and Mayer, 1990). An overview of the theory of emotional intelligence suggests that it attempts to describe what the lives of emotionally intelligent people should be; personally, socially, academically, professionally, and in workplace situations (Brackett et al., 2011;Gowing, 2001) describes emotional intelligence as a person's basic underlying capacity to recognize and use emotions. Goleman (1998) believes that emotional intelligence as defined at present also links to classic management theory which argues that the performance of an effective administrator depends on the three fundamental skills; technical skill, conceptual skill, and human skill, or the way the individual perceives and recognizes, the perceptions of his superiors, equals and subordinates, and in the way he or she behaves subsequently. This behaviour then has profound influence on performance management and overall human resource management in organizations. Performance management is interrelated to human resource management because it is the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and outputs are augmented with organizational goals. The present nature of human resource management involves a set of people-oriented activities that promote the effective procurement, utilization, and maintenance of the human resource within an organization. This broad definition suggests that effective human resource management in organizations must focus on the people; their needs, expectations, values and satisfaction. Meeting these requirements needs organizational leadership that can effectively build self-confidence empathy, teamwork, among other emotional intelligence competencies in people to enhance performance management and leading to effective human resource management. This is necessary because the concept of organizational leadership is paramount as an essential aspect of performance management. Effective organizational leadership paradigm ensures building of capacity and to cascade processes and business objectives into the objectives and responsibilities of individuals and teams. In building teams and developing others, these processes become increasingly important as the trend towards decentralization gives managers and employees more authority and responsibility for the delivery of business objectives. Effective human resource management therefore, demands that at the highest level of strategic management, plans are clearly articulated and clearly understood by individual employees and teams. This will then form the basis of measurement and appraisal because responsibility is placed on individuals and teams respectively (Bourne et al., 2003;Gandhi and Sachdeva, 2018;Goleman, 2006;Livesey, 2017;Mayer et al., 1999).

Research Problem
A major challenge in many organizations is the lack of differentiation of personnel activities from the role of human resource management. At the early stages when human beings were seen purely as economic tools to be used and dumped by factory owners matters of personnel management were strictly restricted only to record keeping, which consists of opening files for the newly employed, keeping records of matters relating to an individual employee, such as letters of appointment, pay rise, letters of transfer, annual leave, discipline and attending to issues that could bring conflict between management and employees so as to diffuse tension and ensure peace in the organization. Things changed with the Industrial Revolution and human beings now have a voice in matters affecting them, and since human resource is also the most difficult aspect of the factors of production to manage, the human resource manager should possess competencies such as managerial leadership, capacity for organizational leadership, self-confidence and other emotional intelligence competencies to integrate human resource management with performance management to ensure effective human resource management (Bath and Valcour, 2003;Drucker, 1998;Lansing and Kliner, 1990;Mayer et al., 2000).

Research Objective
This study was designed to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management.

Research Rationale
Effective human resource management incorporates the implementation of effective performance management framework and managing the internal and external environments of the organization in this competitive era. This requires critical competencies necessary for building capacity for productivity, profitability and institutional sustainability.

Research Questions
i. Do you think that emotional intelligence helps in personality assessment? ii. Does effective human resource management require good leadership? iii. Can self-confidence promote effective human resource management? iv. Is it true that drive or motivation leads to effective human resource management? v. Is developing others part of effective human resource management? vi. Can effective human resource management involve conflict management?

Hypothesis
To achieve the objective of the study this hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Ho: There is no relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management. Hi: There is a relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management.

Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is the structure of the study and its hypothesized variables in relation to the research problem. It is often expressed as a model. Models are used to clarify issues relating to the investigation and lead to theory building. The model for this study is shown in figure 1.

Figure-1. Emotional Intelligence and Effective Human Resource Management Model
Definitions of emotional intelligence largely relates to how both cognitive and non-cognitive intelligences influence intelligent behaviour in specific situations, including the workplace. Emotional intelligence is an index of emotional competencies often in clusters, and each based on a common underlying emotional intelligence capacity. Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to identify, understand and effectively manage emotions. According to Radha and Shree (2017) it helps to reduce stress in the workplace, involves effective communication with others, empathy, and overcoming challenges both at work and at family levels. Mastery of emotional intelligence helps employees to perform better, to be more productive, reduce conflict with others, and build cordial relationships that result to better organizational performance management. Effective human resource management therefore, has its roots in emotional intelligence and effective performance management. As soon as organizational members are able to cultivate the culture of emotional intelligence the organization is heading towards effective performance management which is closely tied to effective human resource management. For example, according to Goleman (1998) leadership as a factor of emotional intelligence provides guide for the performance of others, while holding them accountable. Leadership skill provides the capacity for organizational leaders to instill self-confidence, drive and communicate effectively with organizational members. It also enhances the determination to manage conflict so as to improve organizational performance. This is imperative in effective human resource management because emotional intelligence is also described as a subset of social intelligence and laden with effective information that must be processed differently from the cognitive information because individuals may differ in the skill with which they understand such information. Emotional intelligence is basically a part of Howard Gardner's view of personal intelligences which include knowledge about the self and about others. The conceptualization has positive influence on effective human resource management, because of human nature. The importance of emotional intelligence in managing people cannot be overemphasized because of employees' needs' and organizational needs. Meeting these multiple needs requires multiple emotional competencies and effective human resource management cannot be short of critical representations, understanding the relationship between managing people, the strategies and goals of the organization as well as the possibilities, opportunities and challenges as may be presented by the external environment. This understanding is essential for effective performance management which seeks to enhance employee satisfaction and the achievement of organizational goals or increasing productivity. As increasing productivity becomes very important and challenging in a changing world, and as competition increases, organizations want people who have good interpersonal skills and knowledge of the job. Skills and knowledge are the raw materials that are transformed into objective results through employees' performance. Employees' can exhibit appropriate behaviours only if they have the necessary skills, knowledge, attributes and other characteristics. Thus, employees with good job knowledge and good interpersonal skills can enhance performance effectiveness. On the contrary, employees without necessary competencies cannot effectively display competent behaviours and performance. As emphasized in this conceptual model, organizations now introduce performance management as the cornerstone of people management, resulting from a multifunctional perspective and as an integrating mechanism for all people management activities. Most importantly, it promotes a cohesive style and philosophy of people management that is critical in the achievement of business goals (Miao et al., 2017;Munir and Azam, 2017).

Literature
Edward Thorndike's suggestion about 100 years ago that social intelligence relates to the ability to manage boys and girls, men and women provides historical perspective that emotional intelligence has relationship with effective human resource management. Effective human resource management focuses on attempts to build the right skills and work culture among organizational members. It also promotes the ability to manage individuals and units performance to achieve organizational goals. As organizations become large and complex, and facing increasing external pressures, competing internal and external demands, and scarce resources to meet these demands, achieving desired institutional performance results becomes highly difficult. Achieving performance objectives therefore, requires leadership and effective management. This perspective is interwoven with insightful leadership, and purposeful management. This anchors on the emotional intelligence paradigm which helps to build human skills and also to devote their energies towards achieving goals, to help others to learn and conduct their work, and to help customers to patronize the organization effectively and efficiently. According to Carlson (1997) human resource management is the responsibility of all managers necessary for quality performance management. Performance management is a measure of reality testing of the degree of correspondence between what is expected and what is actually achieved. According to Bar-On (1997) reality-testing, essentially, involves attempting to keep things in correct perspective and experiencing things as they really are without excessive fantasizing or daydreaming about them. Thus, like performance management, reality testing emphasizes on objectivity as well as authenticating ideas and thoughts. Goleman (2006) explains that psychologists continue to argue about which human abilities are social and which are emotional, but concede that such interpersonal effectiveness is of vital importance in leadership and management success in many fields (Hedlund and Sternberg, 2000;Robinson et al., 1997;Schutte et al., 2013;Serrat, 2017;Sidle, 2008).

Emotional Intelligence and Performance Management
A central objective of performance management is to enhance employee satisfaction and to achieve organizational goals. This can be done through job analysis and performance appraisal which provide feedback to employees so that they can also adjust their performance to meet organizational goals. Many organizations focus on good performance management with a view to increasing productivity. Although many organizations see performance management process as a once-a-year performance review, often linked to pay, others incorporate long-term development and coaching into the process. Yet other organizations incorporate emotional intelligence in their definition of performance management as "a process or set of processes for establishing shared understanding about what is to be achieved, and how it is to be achieved, and of managing people in a way that increases the probability that it will be achieved. For the highest degree of effectiveness and efficiency, it is suggested that performance management systems should operate as an integrated process, incorporating elements such as performance goals, coaching and counseling, performance review, skills training, performance-related pay, and training and development. Hartle (1992) opines that when performance management integrates setting objectives, on-going coaching, and training and development in a yearlong process, it can also provide an excellent opportunity to assess emotional intelligence competencies that ultimately lead to outstanding performance, provide feedback on them, and support organizational productivity. According to Jacobs (2001) emotional competencies can be integrated into the typical performance review process as well, which involves setting objectives or business goals, and linking this to pay. She emphasizes that when this process incorporates feedback on emotional intelligence, the manager and employee can identify strengths and weaknesses, discussing how the weaknesses might impede attainment of the goals and then developing a strategy for the attainment of expected goals. Receiving feedback on emotional intelligence assists organizational management in defining responsibilities for results (Lam and Kirby, 2002;Sinha and Sinha, 1990;Sony and Mekoth, 2016;Sparr et al., 2017;Spencer, 2001).

Emotional Intelligence and Responsibility
The distribution of responsibilities in an organization should be consistent and based on both individual and group abilities and other dimensions of emotional and social ability, capacity and behaviour. Also defining responsibilities is a pattern of relationship management which incorporates team approach and knowledge reality. It provides for flexibility, and motivation to optimize effectiveness and efficiency. The concept of responsibility in relation to the science of emotional intelligence recognizes that applying solely classical or industrial relations theories of job design that focus mainly on optimizing effectiveness and efficiency through simplifying, routinizing and specializing all jobs can no longer guarantee best performance from individuals and teams. Since effective human resource management involves managing the external and internal perspectives of the organization, different situations might present themselves and requiring the individual or combination of certain emotional intelligence factors such as emotional-self-awareness, self-control, integrity, empathy, influence, openness, adaptability, flexibility, motivation and leadership among others. These are among the ingredients that influence the strategic approaches required to enhance managing people to achieve desirable results in a competitive business world. Today, dealing with the workforce has become ever demanding with regard to job satisfaction, and quality-of-worklife. Therefore, emotional intelligence is of necessity in mediating between role pressures from family and work or from work and family that results to reducing stress and leading to improved productivity. Reducing work-family role conflict is a fundamental component of emotionally intelligent behaviour that goes a long way to enhancing effective human resource management and helping organizational people to keep their minds and hands on the pulse of the greater organization (Barnett and Hyde, 2001;Heymann, 2000;2005;Kossek and Ozeki, 1998;Ugoani, 2013;2015;Woodruffe, 1998;Wright and A., 1998;Youndt, 2000;Zeidner and Matthews, 2017;Zhang et al., 2017).

Methodology
The exploratory research design was used for the study based on both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Primary data were gathered using a 5-point Likert-type researcher-designed questionnaire adapted from the Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and personal interviews. Secondary data were generated from books, journal publications, magazines, newspapers, as well as other relevant sources. These methods were used so as to triangulate, supplement, complement and validate data through each other. The sample was selected by judgmental method from a cross section of Nigerians and the size determined by the sample ratio concept. The information generated was filtered, organized, and coded in readiness for analysis. Data analysis was done through descriptive and regression statistical techniques using frequencies, percentages, mean, and the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) methods (Koerber and McMichael, 2008;Schutte et al., 1998). The OLS technique is a method used to estimate the unknown parameter in a linear regression model with the goal of minimizing the differences between observed variances in a dataset. The method was not only used because of its simplicity but also due to its unique properties of linearity, efficiency, sufficiency, least variances, and least mean errors. The F-test and t-test were used to determine the overall adequacy of the regression model, using the E-view Statistical Package (ESP), based on a unique model specification.

Model Specification
Model specification is the expression of a relationship into precise mathematical form. According to Koutsoyainnis (1977) economic theory does not indicate the functional form of any relationship. This suggests that economic theory does not state whether a relationship will be expressed in linear form, quadratic form, or in a cubic form. On the strength of this, it was decided to specify the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and effective human resource management (EHRM) as follows: EHRM = b 0 + LP t + b 1 SC + b 2 CM + b 3 DR, u.

Discussion
The psychometric model in figure 1 points to the direction that emotional intelligence enhances effective performance management and also leads to effective human resource management. Effective human resource management is often characterized by personality improvement, capacity building as well as organizational productivity, profitability, and sustainability. It is relevant to point out that national sustainability can be ensured by proper management of a diversified economy through efficient human resource management. This is imperative because top management or government, traditionally, has the prerogative economic power of maintaining fair compensation and promoting conducive working environments which will in turn influence the productive capacity of an economic system. For example, Spencer (2001) suggests that economic value addition exists between emotional intelligence competencies and human resource management programmes. He opines that emotional intelligence competencies add value on human resource management in the specific areas of assessment for selection, promotion, training and development, performance appraisal, pay decisions, and career development opportunities. The need to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management cannot be overemphasized because an emotional intelligence competency relates to an underlying characteristic of an individual which is centrally related to effective job performance. This becomes important to the extent that human resource management functions compete with every other organizational function for superior performance, and the assumption is that human resource management interventions can make a more meaningful business contribution to organizational sustainability in terms of management reports and evaluations. Human resource function now integrates as far as both management activities and strategic planning processes of the organization, and it becomes increasingly necessary to improve the process. Because of the rapidly changing peoples' value expectations and preferences, effective human resource management system becomes imperative for questioning and understanding the multinational, bilateral relationships between choices in managing people, the strategies, the goals of the organization and the immense challenges and opportunities in the competitive external environment. Also, it is important to state categorically that hiring and retaining the right people at work is essential for stimulating economic activities for global competitiveness. Emotional intelligence is necessary for individuals' to cope with the ever increasing corporate responsibility of the current century and beyond. For this reason and others, the respondents as in table 1 were selected based on the need to provide quality information for the study. Their responses as in table 2 supports that emotional intelligence helps in personality assessment which is an important aspect of effective human resource management. Many psychologists have reviewed the relationship between emotional intelligence and personality and their impact on performance. For example, Mayer (2019) suggests that the functional areas of personality relates to the dynamics of self-control, executive consciousness, conscious awareness, relationship styles, performance skills, intelligence, motivation, among others. As detailed in table 2, the respondents did not accept that effective human resource management does not require good leadership. This agrees with the views of Cherniss and Roche (2020) that outstanding organizational leaders know how to use emotional intelligence. It was accepted that self-confidence promotes effective human resource management, and also that motivation or drive is imperative in effective performance management. The respondents denied the question that developing others is not an important aspect of effective human resource management, while they agreed that communication promotes effective human resource management. In this original investigation, it was equally revealed that effective human resource management involves conflict management. At a grand mean score of 3.29, over the decision mean of 3.00, it was agreed that emotional intelligence has positive influence on effective performance management and effective human resource management. The regression analysis in table 3 was used to establish the level of linear relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management. In regression analysis, there is an important measure R 2 , which determines the variability in the dependent variable accounted for by the independent variable(s). The possible values of R 2 , range from 0 to 1. The closer R 2 , is to 1, the greater the percentage of the explained variance. A high value of R 2 , of about .80 would indicate that the independent variable is a good predictor of value of the dependent variable of interest. A low value of about .25 or less would indicate a poor predictor, and a value between .25 and .80 would suggest a moderate predictor. In this analysis, the R 2 , value of .80 suggests that about 80 percent variability in the dependent variable is explained by the independent variable, and this confirms that there is significant positive relationship between the variables of interest. The goodness-of-fit test of the model is very good at the adjusted R 2 , value of .76. The Durbin-Watson statistic has a value of 1.81 which confirms that there is no autocorrelation among the independent variables. The Ftest and t-test are significant at 0.05 level, confirming the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management. This is the crux of the investigation. This result supports the analysis of Cherniss (2001), to the extent that human resource management functions and emotional intelligence complement each other with the later providing competencies for the former to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Scope for Further Research
There is low human capacity in many developing countries like Nigeria, further study should therefore, focus on emotional intelligence programmes and human capital development, to bridge the gap.

Recommendations
i. Personality assessment or test should be employed in human resource management processes to enhance the quality of people in positions of responsibility. ii. Conflict management should be seen as catalyst for effective human resource management to minimize the high levels of disagreements in organizations. iii. Good organizational leadership is imperative in effective human resource management to drive management succession planning and organizational sustainability. iv. Communication promotes openness and participation and must be given attention to improve enterprise productivity. v. Emotionally intelligent organizations should grow self-confident people who will not be averse to developing others in the overall interest of organizational profitability.

Conclusion
Emotional Intelligence as an index of performance competencies is a powerful tool to promote effective human resource management and central to finding competent executives that can re-engineer contemporary corporate organizations towards the paths of effectiveness. 255 respondents participated in the investigation conducted through the exploratory research design and the result showed positive correlation between emotional intelligence and effective human resource management.